[4] Adande's grandfather, Gerson "Gus" Oberstein (1914-2003), was a violinist who had played with jazzmen Joe Roland and Charlie Parker, and with the Berkeley Symphony for twenty years.
[5] Adande attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, where he served as sports editor and co-editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and graduated in 1988.
[6][3] He was sports editor of The Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper, and interned with Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Washington Post.
[2] After graduating from Northwestern, Adande held full-time reporter jobs at the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, and Washington Post.
[8] Adande is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, and also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Journalism.